Corals Dying not Opening

[BioNub]

Hi,

Im fairly new to the hobby, have had my bioCube in place since october last year and everything has been working great until recently, about 2 or 3 weeks back, I noticed some of Corals are not opening like they used to and others are turning white and look like they are dying. Also, alot of my hermits are dying too, everyday Ill find one or two dead on the sand bed.

I do BiWeekly water changes and have always used OceanWater From PETCO, I have the 32g BioCube with stock LED lights, and I usually change 5g every 2 weeks, the Temperature sits around 77 degrees for the most part, and my readings are doing pretty good from what I can gather.

All I have is a clown, a goby and pistol, 2 shrimps, and a mandarin goby. Please help, I don't want the rest of my Corals dying, though the rest seem to be doing okay

pH: 8.4
Amonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 7
Phosphate: .15
Alkalinity: 9
Calcium: 420

Any help is greatly appreciated,
Also, does anyone know the name of these corals Attached in the 2 pictures so I can do some more reasearch on them?
Thank you.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

I'd say your phosphates are very high. With only two fish, that seems improbable unless you're over feeding or you have stuff leaching out of your rocks. How old is the tank? Do you run anything to remove phosphate? I'm not familiar with the stock LEDs on a biocube, but possibly also a lighting issue?

I personally don't trust water from fish stores (especially Petco), I only make my own.

 

[Cloudburst2000]

Yeah, your phosphates seem to be running high. Where did you get your rock from? Some rock is known for leaching phosphates into the water. High phosphates could definitely be a contributing factor. Also, are you adding pods to the tank for the mandarin? They are very difficult to care for and should really only be kept by more advanced aquarists. They have very specific dietary needs and are hard to keep in a smaller aquarium that does not have a sump. This is because the main part of their diet consists of pods and it is hard to keep pod population up in smaller aquariums as the mandarin will quickly deplete the pods. I definitely do not suggest a mandarin for a beginner.

 

[BioNub]

Thanks for the replies guys,

My Tank is roughly 6 months old. I don't think I'm over feeding...I spot feed with a syringe once a day and sometimes I skip a day here and there, I was using reef roids on my corals almost everyday but stopped about a week ago to diagnose the issue. The Rock is from the local fish shop. For filters I'm running chemipure, purigen, a sheet of carbon and nitrate filters along with floss. What do you recommend to remove Phosphates?

As far as the mandarin, I'm really worried about him too. I did some resarch and thought I was ready for him since my aquarium was covered with pods... there were great in numbers until I added the mandarin, he got most of them. I bought some live pods from the store and put them in a bubble thing I made with some chaeto so they could settle in there and the mandarin could pick at them (think this is called a podHotel or something) but even though he seems to pick at them he's still getting skinny.. I bought some frozen pods and tried to spot feed him but I literally cover him in pods and he'll just swim through it like nothing is there... :headwalls:

 

[Cloudburst2000]

Thanks for the replies guys,

My Tank is roughly 6 months old. I don't think I'm over feeding...I spot feed with a syringe once a day and sometimes I skip a day here and there, I was using reef roids on my corals almost everyday but stopped about a week ago to diagnose the issue. The Rock is from the local fish shop. For filters I'm running chemipure, purigen, a sheet of carbon and nitrate filters along with floss. What do you recommend to remove Phosphates?

As far as the mandarin, I'm really worried about him too. I did some resarch and thought I was ready for him since my aquarium was covered with pods... there were great in numbers until I added the mandarin, he got most of them. I bought some live pods from the store and put them in a bubble thing I made with some chaeto so they could settle in there and the mandarin could pick at them (think this is called a podHotel or something) but even though he seems to pick at them he's still getting skinny.. I bought some frozen pods and tried to spot feed him but I literally cover him in pods and he'll just swim through it like nothing is there... :headwalls:

You don't need to feed corals every day. Some people don't target feed corals at all so every day is not needed. I usually target fed corals once or twice per week. So you might be overfeeding. Feeding fish once a day is fine. Are you running a skimmer? You might look at putting a skimmer into the back of the biocube. Also, a refugium in the rear is a good way to lower nutrients. I also think you need to be doing larger water changes. I think 10% per week is really minimum that should be done but more is better. I would look at upping water changes to 5g each week instead of every two weeks. This will really help lower phosphates.

I would suggest trying to find a new home for the mandarin. My brother-in-law kept one in a nano (even after I told him not to) and spent tons of money supplementing the pods. Finally, he got sick of spending so much money on pods and the mandarin still didn't have enough to eat. He ended up giving the mandarin to a local guy with a huge tank. See if there are any local reefers willing to take a free mandarin. It will very likely die in your tank,

 

[divewsharks]

What is your salinity, are you topping off regularly?
What corals are you Keeping that your are target feeding everyday (which as mentioned you don’t need to do unless it’s an nps).

 

[BioNub]

What is your salinity, are you topping off regularly?

Divewsharks I think you might be onto something here! I didnt check my salinity and weight for a while an I'm pretty high I think :eek1: Salinity is at 40 and weight at 1.030! How bad is this??? As mentioned Ive always used OceanWater from Petco, even for topping off here and there.. is this a mistake? Can I top off with just distilled water? Or does it have to specifically be ro di?

As far as feeding I don't know the exact name of the corals, but I was feeding all of them everyday.. my pulsing xenias, torches and frog spawn looking guys seem to love it. Though some (not all) of my Zoas arent opening up all the way

 

[UTCReefer]

High salinity can wreck a reef tank. I did that once. Lower it over a few days and everything should be fine.

 

[ryeguyy84]

Divewsharks I think you might be onto something here! I didnt check my salinity and weight for a while an I'm pretty high I think :eek1: Salinity is at 40 and weight at 1.030! How bad is this??? As mentioned Ive always used OceanWater from Petco, even for topping off here and there.. is this a mistake? Can I top off with just distilled water? Or does it have to specifically be ro di?

As far as feeding I don't know the exact name of the corals, but I was feeding all of them everyday.. my pulsing xenias, torches and frog spawn looking guys seem to love it. Though some (not all) of my Zoas arent opening up all the way

I would stop spot feeding the corals all together, they should get what they need from the water (fish poop). you should be topping off with RODI but if distilled is what you have than it's better than tap.

you might want to look into mixing your own saltwater, the bare minimum is a bucket, power head and some salt. this way you have control of your salinity.

 

[divewsharks]

Divewsharks I think you might be onto something here! I didnt check my salinity and weight for a while an I'm pretty high I think :eek1: Salinity is at 40 and weight at 1.030! How bad is this??? As mentioned Ive always used OceanWater from Petco, even for topping off here and there.. is this a mistake? Can I top off with just distilled water? Or does it have to specifically be ro di?

As far as feeding I don't know the exact name of the corals, but I was feeding all of them everyday.. my pulsing xenias, torches and frog spawn looking guys seem to love it. Though some (not all) of my Zoas arent opening up all the way

The high salinity definitely disagrees with your corals (some more than others) and the inverts.
As mentioned, bring it down slowly and top off water should be freshwater. Do you know the TDS of your available water sources?
If you are in this game for the long haul, a RO/DI is a really good investment and making your own water gives you the flexibility and control.

 

[Uncle99]

That's actually very bad.
The higher the salinity the harder a inhabitant must work to breath.
Corals and fish do well in the 34-35 ppt range, and it's OK to bring down fast....only go slow when your going up.....
Mandarin can be kept provided he is the only POD eater, I feed my tank, newly hatched brine nauplii, once per week, after lights out and without flow for an hour or so so they can hide in the rocks....

 

[DivingTheWorld]

even for topping off here and there.. is this a mistake? Can I top off with just distilled water? Or does it have to specifically be ro di?

This is key, NEVER top off with saltwater. That will cause your salinity to rise. I think distilled or RODI are good. Once you get your own RODI system and make your own water, that would likely be the lowest cost.

 

[mcgyvr]

First one looks like a goniopora anyways.. it was bound to die...thats NOT a beginner coral by any means..
Seems like you figured out the reason for your problems though..

Time to step back and increase your knowledge before proceeding further..

 

[newbie2014]

Salinity is easy to correct.

The same thing happened to me when I just started. I could only keep fish and a few of CUC alive. All corals melted within days. It was a mystery. I came here for answers/solutions. Everyone pitched in, but no one questioned the most basic factor and finally gave up. It was by accident that I discovered that my trusted refractometer was waaaay off. My salinity for the first 2-3 months was 1.035-1.041. Once I corrected that, things took off.

I hope everything is back to normal for the OP.

 

[BioNub]

Thanks a ton guys, my BioCube is doing much better after about 10 days of water being at the proper salinity levels. And so far it does seem like topping off here and there with fresh water keeps everything smooth.

My corals are doing better as well, even the goniopora as someone mentioned are extending a little.. (after days of being pronounced dead and out of sight), they are not long the way they were before though, is there anything I can do to help them take off again? I refuse to accept that since Im a beginner it is bound to die... I'm more than willing to research if pointed in the right direction.

which brings me to my last issue..

my underfed Mandarin is now eating tons of livepods out of a feeder I made! :celeb1::celeb1: I'm making them everyday and he's definetly eating (I been staring for hours), I'd like to keep feeding him daily until I notice a difference in his belly but, will the amount of pods affect my water quality which is now "under control"? the clown and shrimps eat whatever escapes the mandarins feeder and I'm sure the filters pick up a few too but I'm dumping quiet a few, I'm told he needs anywhere from 400 to 1000 daily?

I've attached a picture which is a pretty sight to finally see him eating, wish it was frozen or flakes... but at this point Ill take anything.

Thanks again for all you guy's help.

 

[Reefiez]

feeding is fun, but your corals don't need to be fed every day!

i'd recommend feeding your corals just once (at most twice) a week, unless they are non-photosynthetic (nps).

your lights + fish food should provide your corals enough to survive and grow even without direct feeding

 

[Uncle99]

Looks fine to me.
I have watched mine on and off for a year now....when he's cruising....he picks off a copepod every 20-30 seconds and at this rate, he has survived fine. When that rate drops to 60 seconds or more, I add some more PODS at night, lights off, filter and flow off for 1 hour